THE STRUGGLE FOR IRAQ: PARAMILITARY FORCES

THE STRUGGLE FOR IRAQ: PARAMILITARY FORCES; Videotape Is Said to Show Torture Under Hussein Rule

Published: October 30, 2003

WASHINGTON, Oct. 29—
Fox News on Wednesday evening broadcast portions of a videotape showing what it said were graphic examples of torture at the hands of Iraqi soldiers.

The 23-minute videotape showed black-clad soldiers reading off charges in a crowded public square, then meting out punishment -- cutting off fingers and tongues, tossing people from buildings and even decapitating one individual.

Fox newscasters said the torturers were presumably members of the Fedayeen Saddam, paramilitary forces loyal to the government of Saddam Hussein, and the video was probably made sometime after 1995.

A spokesman for Fox, Robert Zimmerman, declined to say how Fox had obtained the tape. He said it had been made by an Iraqi citizen who was apparently documenting the torture for the Republican Guard. The Iraqi turned the tape over to United States soldiers in Iraq, he said.

Fox reported that American military intelligence officers believed the the tape was authentic. Pentagon officials declined to comment Wednesday night.

Photo: A videotape broadcast yesterday shows a black-clad man, said to be an Iraqi paramilitary trooper, striking a bound prisoner. (Photo by Fox News Channel)